January 14, 2013

The Lakers drew top seed and second-ranked Labette College to start the tournament and lost 37-6.

"We wrestled better in this dual then the team score showed but at the same time we were capable of wrestling better in the dual," said Iowa Lakes coach Cody Alesch. "When you have opportunities to wrestle good teams you want to perform at your best and take advantage of those opportunities and we did not do that."

In the consolation round, the Lakers lost 23-12 to Lincoln.

"We were flat in this dual and lost to a team we were capable of beating," said Alesch. "We lost two overtime matches along with two one-point matches because we did not wrestle for 7 minutes. In this type of event you simply need to fight and wrestle for 7 minutes and several guys failed to do that in this dual."

The Lakers finally picked up a win in the seventh-place match as they defeated Neosho 36-9.

"To end the day we wrestled better and won some of those close matches and we did a better job of wrestling for 7 minutes," said Alesch. "We still had some weights where we struggled still, but overall it was a much better team effort.

"As a coaching staff we took a lot away from the day," the coach continued. "It was a great event to be a part of but we did not perform to the level we are capable of."

Iowa Lakes returns to action this Saturday at the Super Duals in Mason City.